Here is a sad but true confession. With every single political candidate, no matter the political party, I have to ask myself, “Do I believe in my heart that the candidate is a racist?” The process is remarkably consistent, election year after election year. Some news outlet will report on some obscure blog or Tweet that has something vile attached to a candidate (most often a conservative or Republican candidate) that will be labeled racist.

I vet the article and pretty much always learn that it is a gross misrepresentation or an outright lie that is used to support the faulty premise and the Democratic Party stereotype that those of us who are conservative are racists. Another regular feature of this phenomenon is the conservative shtick is to claim that race doesn’t matter and that we are all One America. Even though that is how it ought to be, the fact is that it has never been that way for many, if not most, black Americans.

This takes us to the latest example rearing its ugly head; Imperial Wizard David Duke, who, we’re told, is voting for Donald Trump. The latest headline is that Trump’s vice presidential running mate Mike Pence won’t call Duke “deplorable.” Even though Trump and Pence have repeatedly rejected the support of Duke and other such bigots, Pence and the Trump campaign are in hot water because he won’t use this one media approved word to describe one particular racist.

The media’s obsession with the word ‘deplorable’ stems from its attempt to exonerate Hillary Clinton for her inopportune characterization of half of Trump’s supporters as being worthy of placement in a “basket of deplorables.” Get Trump or Pence to call one Trump supporter deplorable and bingo — Hillary was right!

Herein lies the breathtaking double standard. During President Obama’s election campaign, he received “glowing” comments from Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. This Minister is on the record of having, to put it lightly, a strong distaste of the paler nation. For example, while speaking at City College in New York, Mr. Farrakhan said, “The white man is our mortal enemy, and we cannot accept him. I will fight to see that vicious beast go down into the [lake] of fire.”

Then there’s this beauty from Farrakhan in the late 1980s: “The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He rose Germany up from the ashes.” What a guy.

Fast forward to then-Senator Obama’s 2008 debate with Tim Russert as a moderator, who asked him about Farrakhan’s support for him. Obama seemed to go through great pains to denounce Farrakhan’s comments but not the man in himself. When asked by Russert if he rejects Minister Farrakhan’s support, Obama went all around the mulberry bush and never said ‘I reject his support.’ He rejected his comments, he denounced his beliefs, but didn’t reject his support. And at no point was Obama asked if Minister Farrakhan is deplorable.

Despite this most people, even conservatives, never bought into the line that Obama is racist. They understand politics. The same applies to Orlando nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen, whose friend wrote in theWashington Postabout the terrorist’s stated support for Hillary Clinton.

Nobody ascribed Mateen’s behavior to Hillary and rightly so. Not so for Pence. Because he is a Republican and because he is part of a rising GOP ticket, he must be held accountable for the behavior of everyone who supports a Trump presidency. It’s ludicrous but it’s also a fact of life among the talking heads on cable TV news.

Mike Pence is right to not take the silly bait being dangled in front of him by TV news people peddling the utter nonsense that Pence or Trump are racists. I realize none of what I write here will change that but the American people seem to be wising up to this sort of journalistic malpractice.

There’s an inverse relationship between Trump’s growing support and the dwindling viewership of CNN, MSNBC and the like. In the final analysis, the establishment media might turn out to be the one thing that puts Trump on top in November.

Originally published on September 26, 2016 by SpeakerMatch Speakers Bureau